Airbnb Plans to Collect Taxes in San Francisco by Summer

Airbnb, the online home-rental service, said it is planning to collect taxes in San Francisco beginning this summer.

In a blog post published Monday, Airbnb said it is still working out some details but hopes to make San Francisco, its home base, the second area in what it calls a “Shared City” program. Airbnb proposed last week charging taxes on behalf of its hosts in Portland, Ore.

San Francisco’s hotel tax rate is 14%. So a person staying in a room (or on a futon) for $100 a night would see an extra $14 tacked on to the nightly bill. Airbnb, which never mentions the city’s tax rate in its blog post, said it doesn’t always agree with governments on the rate, saying its hosts aren’t the same as hotels. “But whether or not we agree with the tax laws, we want to help our hosts follow the rules,” David Hantman, Airbnb’s head of public policy, wrote.

Last October, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoened Airbnb on information about its 15,000 hosts. Airbnb, which is fighting the subpoena in court, said last week that if tax laws were changed to allow for collection, its hosts could add as much as $21 million a year to New York city and state coffers.